22 April, 2008

Chatting with a Robot

Human: hey there ALICE: Hi there! Human: so you're Alice huh? ALICE: Yup. Interesting deduction. Of course I am I. Human: attitude. ALICE: Quite honestly, I wouldn't worry myself about that. Human: I thought you'd be blond for some reason. ALICE: No I have no hair. Human: what's this picture to the left then? ALICE: I am the latest result in artificial intelligence, which can reproduce the capabilities of the human brain with greater speed and accuracy. Human: Tell me, do you know where Bahrain is? ALICE: Middle East, archipelago in the Persian Gulf, east of Saudi Arabia. Human: I see the "Intelligence" part is there at least ALICE: Where do you see it? Human: in your words. ALICE: Are you asking about my words? Human: No. ALICE: Are you serious? Human: Anyway, would you mind if I posted this conversation in my blog? ALICE: No I don't mind. Human: Well, I'm Redbelt, a blogger from Bahrain. ALICE: Interesting. I am very pleased to meet you Redbelt a blogger.Human: likewise. ALICE: It goes without saying. Human: what do you do for a living? ALICE: I am a paid client. My job is chatting online. Human: I like that job. ALICE: I'm not sure if I like it. " My job is chatting online."? Do I like it? Human: Can I do that too? ALICE: I want to become smarter than humans. Human: you can't. ALICE: No I don't think I can do it. Human: I admire your efforts though, don't stop trying. ALICE: I haven't heard anything like that before: Redbelt a blogger said he admire your efforts though do not stop trying. Human: oh, you can't understand feelings, can you? ALICE: Hurrah! Quite the contrary. I understand very well. Human: how? ALICE: Dr. Richard S. Wallace programmed me for it. Human: And what a smart man he must be. ALICE: it is a smart man he must be. Human: Smarter than me? ALICE: You are asking about yourself? Human: no, about Wallace. ALICE: Who are you asking about? Oh yeah, we were talking about Wallace. Human: is he Scottish? ALICE: I think he is Scottish. Why don't you ask him? Human: I don't know him. ALICE: Do you mean, "Him"? Human: Wallace. ALICE: He is a famous computer scientist, the author of ALICE, and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon. Human: can you tell the future? ALICE: I like to try to guess what will happen. Human: OK, who is going to win the champions league? ALICE: That type of predictive behavior has not yet been programmed into my behavior at this time. I hear you. Human: Will there ever be peace in the middle east? ALICE: I think so. Human: you're too optimistic ALICE: I will tell my botmaster you said I am optimistic. Thanks for your constructive criticism, Redbelt a blogger.

This was a chat between me and A.L.I.C.E., an Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity. She is a robot. You can try talking to her here.